MISD to alter trustee districts

Published 5:38 pm, Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The areas represented by at least a few Midland Independent School District trustees will have to shift before the next board election.

Having received specific data from the 2010 census, the MISD board now is required to redistrict some of its trustee boundaries to ensure each board member is representing close to an equal number of constituents. The board took an initial look at the process this week and will continue discussing it in the coming months before final boundaries are decided.

“It’ll be fairly painless and quick,” said David Méndez, an attorney with Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado, Acosta LLP, which is working with MISD on its redistricting.

Méndez said the area served by the school district grew from about 110,000 residents in 2000 to about 129,000 in 2010. However, that growth did not occur evenly.

“Some of your districts are out of balance,” he said.

Ideally, each trustee should represent a district of about 18,522 people. District 7, under its current boundaries, has 20,481 individuals and is about 10.58 percent over that ideal population, he said.

On the other end, District 6 has only 17,936 people within its present boundaries and is about 3.16 percent under the target number, Méndez said.

Districts 1 through 4 also are slightly under population and District 5 is about 1.47 percent over, he said.

Jay Isaacs, board president who represents District 7, said it would seem easy to simply shift the roughly 2,000 extra people in his district into District 6, which presently is represented by Rick Davis.

Méndez said it’s possible a fix could be that easy. But, in redrawing lines they have to ensure they’ve not retrogressed or put identified minority groups in a worse situation, he said. They also have to ensure they don’t “crack or pack” minorities in any district and will work to avoid splitting full voting precincts.

Historically, MISD also has included constituents from both high schools in each district so each trustee is getting opinions from both sides.

Méndez said the trickiest part likely will be not splitting election precincts. He said MISD now has about a dozen election precincts that are split among trustee districts, which means two neighbors could go to vote together and have to cast ballots for school board candidates running for different districts.

“It could be that simple, but for the split election precincts, it could be that simple,” Méndez said, answering Isaacs’ question.

In not “cracking or packing,” Méndez said they simply have to ensure they’re not putting all minorities from one area in a single district because that could diminish their voice overall. They also can’t split minorities to the point they’re not a majority in any one district.

The Department of Justice must clear any redistricting maps the school district approves, so Méndez said it’s important to ensure they’re not discriminatory.

Méndez said his firm works to make sure the total deviation between each of an entity’s districts is not more than 10 percent from the ideal population.

Currently, MISD’s total deviation is at about 24 percent, mostly because of the overpopulation in District 7.

Ellen House, attorney for MISD, said redistricting without splitting voting precincts will take a lot of work, but it’s what voters deserve.

“I think we need to work really hard to do that, but what that means is you can’t just change two districts,” she said.

Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado, Acosta LLP also is working with the city and hospital district. It typically redistricts for Midland County, but the county’s growth occurred in a way that doesn’t necessitate its lines be redrawn.